POWERHOUSE WOMEN CHANGE TELEVISION'S FEMALE IMAGES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 7, 1993                   TAG: 9301060188
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 2   EDITION: METRO   
SOURCE: LYNN ELBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Medium
POWERHOUSE WOMEN CHANGE TELEVISION'S FEMALE IMAGES
They were, in the politically incorrect lingo of times past, tough broads.
Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell - women with a career, an attitude and meaningful shoulder pads. But don't look for their counterparts today at the movies; television is their domain.
The contemporary small-screen versions are, in many cases, molded by women who have achieved success in the TV industry as writers and producers.
When you see a brash Murphy Brown, look for a Diane English. Or peer behind chain-smoking, tough-talking Georgie Ann Lahti of the new comedy "Hearts Afire" to find Linda Bloodworth-Thomason.
Then there's the new CBS Western "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," starring Jane Seymour as a female physician on a man's frontier. Prime mover behind the Saturday night series is Beth Sullivan, the first woman to singlehandedly create and serve as executive producer of a prime-time network drama.
All of the above have created characters who are aggressive, smart and resilient. Also arrogant and vulnerable, selfish and giving.
In other words, real women. Women with a point of view. And, sometimes, women with an agenda.
"I like it when you say no. Because everyone knows when a guy says no, he really means yes," Lahti (Markie Post) coos sarcastically when her lover (John Ritter) refuses to kiss after a spat.
Take that, all you dense souls unable to grasp the concept of date rape.
Lahti (deliciously and deftly played by Post) is a "very assertive women living life as she pleases," said Bloodworth-Thomason.
Television, that valiant keeper of the flame, hasn't forsaken its mainstay - the warm, supportive motherly wife (or is that wifely mother?).
But even she tends to be less sweet and more sassy, like Jill Taylor (Patricia Richardson) on ABC's "Home Improvement." Or that singular force of nature, Roseanne Arnold.
English calls such types "the talk-back wife."
"The days of Donna Reed - those days are numbered," she said. "Women like Kate Hepburn are far more interesting than a character who just stays in the kitchen. That's not the way most households operate anymore."
On the other hand, relatively few mirror, say, the "Evening Shade" clan, with mom (Marilu Henner) a high-powered prosecuting attorney and dad (Burt Reynolds) an enlightened football coach.
But let's hear it for role models. Role models are exactly what minorities clamor for when they decry laugh-a-minute black characters on sitcoms or the few parts available to most other ethnic actors.
According to figures from the Screen Actors Guild, women in 1990 received up to 46 percent of the roles on TV (although only about 30 percent of the roles in feature films).
By contrast, Hispanics received 3 percent of all film and TV roles in 1991, while Asians got 1 percent - both figures less than their representation in the U.S. population.
Bloodworth-Thomason is unsurprised that television has been more responsive than the movie industry to the changing image of women.
"The features industry is much more male-dominated. Women in features are strong in an almost cartoonish way," she said. The serial nature of TV also allows time to bring audiences along, gradually introducing change.
Women's success in getting positive images on TV gives muscle to arguments that the medium won't realistically depict minorities until they achieve some measure of behind-the-scenes power.
"It's axiomatic. The more power you have, the louder your voice is heard," said Gilbert Cates, a movie producer and dean of the UCLA Film School.
But the bottom line can overcome sexism.
"Women can do just about anything they want to do on TV as long as they get good ratings and make the network a lot of money," Bloodworth-Thomason said.
Let's not be sexist here. There are spirited female characters created by men, of course, such as Maggie the Alaska bush pilot (Janine Turner) on Joshua Brand and John Falsey's "Northern Exposure."
"Men write lovely women characters," agrees Bloodworth-Thomason. "I don't think you have to have breasts to write these shows. But it helps."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB